Western Ghats ESZ rules will hit economic interests: Karnataka government

The statements come at a time when Karnataka and at least three other states that have the Western Ghats belt passing through it, have opposed the new notification of the union government, citing impact on economic interests and development of a region that is one of 36 biggest biodiversity hotspots on the planet.

The Karnataka government on Friday reiterated its stand to oppose the draft rules notified by the central government on the Western Ghats, saying that implementation of eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) rules in the area will impact the state’s economic interests.

The Karnataka government on Friday reiterated its stand to oppose the draft rules notified by the central government on the Western Ghats, saying that implementation of eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) rules in the area will impact the state’s economic interests. (HT)

“State governments had been asked for their opinions on a report submitted by the Kasturirangan committee. We have said we do not approve of it as it would be an injustice to people living in the region. The government has made its stand clear twice,” JC Madhuswamy, Karnataka’s minister for law, parliamentary affairs and minor irrigation, said on Friday in Bengaluru.

He was briefing the media after a state cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai.

The statements come at a time when Karnataka and at least three other states that have the Western Ghats belt passing through it, have opposed the new notification of the union government, citing impact on economic interests and development of a region that is one of 36 biggest biodiversity hotspots on the planet.

“We cannot move or evacuate people from the Western Ghats region based on the report. The decision and reasons for the same will be conveyed to the Centre in writing,” Madhuswamy said.

A delegation led by the chief minister and elected representatives from this region are expected to meet union ministers in Delhi on July 25-26 to convey the opposition.

The union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) on July 6 issued a notification in which it had proposed to demarcate large parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states as the ESZ.

Traversing through six states, the Western Ghats is one among 36 global biodiversity hotspots that spreads from Gujarat to Kerala, covering an area of 160,000 sq km and constitutes 5% of India’s geographical extent.

Environmentalists and ecologists have opposed the government’s stand, stating economic interests were being placed before ecological interests in the garb of safeguarding livelihoods.

“The Western Ghats is endowed with perennial river networks and function as a water tower for peninsular India, ensuring water and food security, and sustaining the livelihood of millions of dependent populations. The Western Ghats is the hottest hotspot of biodiversity and has been experiencing land degradation and deforestation due to higher loss of forest cover since independence with the unplanned developmental activities and fragmented governance,” TV Ramachandra, who is the coordinator for the Energy and Wetlands Research Group and is part of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, earlier told HT.

He said evergreen forest cover in India has reduced from 16% in 1985 to 11% in 2018.

During the same time period, moist deciduous forests in Karnataka have come down from 5.71% to 4.12%, dry deciduous forests from 3.97% to 2.23%, according to the “Valuation of Ecosystem Services, Karnataka State, India” report filed by IISc and IIT-Kharagpur.

Interestingly, plantations have gone up from 8.7% or 16,789.65 sq km in 1,985 to 11.1% or 21,325.23 sq km.

Chief minister Bommai on December 4 refused to go ahead with the Kasturirangan committee report which proposes that around 37% of the total area be declared as ESZ.

To be sure, all other states had earlier rejected the Prof Madhav Gadgil report in 2010, calling it “anti-agrarian”, necessitating the setting up of another committee under Kasturirangan, which experts said, was a “diluted” version that tried to find a balance in saving livelihoods as well as the rapidly eroding green cover and natural forests in the state.